Living with Mistakes We've Made
by CharlotteBlackwood
Summary: Conglomeration between my works, Broken and my six-gen, starting at It's For You, as well as the Althea story arc by emberlivi. This story is dedicated to her amazing works, which she has so graciously allowed me to draw characters from, and which make me cry regularly. The Marauder Era characters deal with war and love. SB/OC, RL/OC, RL/NT, JP/LE, GW/OC, DT/OC, Yaxley/OC M
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Okay, so this is going to be another story with familiar faces and plotlines, albeit put together in a variety of different ways. Olivia, Claire, Audrey, and Eva are all members of other stories of mine, and should be familiar to some of my fans. Likewise, Abigail and Sarah are renamed characters based strongly on characters from **_**emberlivi's**_** lovely Althea story arch! If you've not read them, READ THEM, they're so good. She has graciously allowed me to use these characters! There will be more familiar characters later, but for right now, that's what we've got! I hope you all enjoy this! I've put a lot of planning into it, and I think it will be a really great read. First chapter is September of 1971, told from Olivia's viewpoint!**

** -C**

My father had left my younger sister at home, not wanting to drag her into public eye, once again. I had said my goodbyes to Anne-Claire that morning after breakfast as our father was putting my things in the car.

"Livia!"

I turned to see James Potter smiling and waving me over. I looked up at my father and smiled.

"Daddy, can I go?"

"Go ahead, dear," my father said, kissing my forehead. "Have fun."

He wandered off to talk to James's parents and James helped me lift my trunk onto the train and into a compartment near the entrance.

"Sirius, Claire, this is Livia Cromwell," James said snootily to a dark-haired boy and girl who were very obviously twins.

"Your father's Peter Cromwell?" the girl said in a bored voice. I nodded. "You must know everybody."

"No, not really," I admitted. "My sister and I, we don't really get out much, and visitors are a bit of a rare thing."

"Isn't that cool?" James asked eagerly as we sat down.

Apparently I was automatically cool, which was a bit of a relief.

Claire and Sirius Black were twins, the eldest of three in a pureblood family. We'd gotten comfortable with each other as I decided that Claire was very pretty, with flowing raven hair, gray eyes, and aristocratic cheekbones, when the door opened and a pretty redhead came in, spotting the seats by the window and sitting down without speaking to us.

"Should we let the owls out?" I asked.

"Nah, they'll get plenty of time to stretch their wings when we get to Hogwarts," Sirius said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Three owls might get a bit tight and territorial in here."

A dark-haired boy with incredibly greasy hair came in and sat across from the girl at the window and they talked quietly, ignoring us as we talked about Quidditch, which was apparently something was all enjoyed.

"We don't really play," Claire explained, "but Sirius is a wonderful commentator. He comments through the whole match whenever we go with our brother."

"Reg hates it," Sirius explained with relish. "What position are you, Livia?"

"Beater, I guess," I said with a shrug.

From the way they looked at me I could tell they didn't think a person my size could be effective as a Beater, but I didn't mind. My father had taught me that being underestimated wasn't a bad thing. Your competition never saw you coming.

I hadn't heard the word, but James and Sirius latched onto the word Slytherin being said by the boy at the window, and an altercation occurred. It was a miracle the insults between James and the boy whom the redhead dubbed Severus didn't end in a duel, but the redhead, who very obviously didn't think much of us after the fight, dragged Severus out of the compartment before it could escalate any further.

Apparently Hogwarts would be less than idyllic.

"Well, now that the harpy's gone," Claire teased, smirking in a satisfied way, "we can enjoy the rest of our train ride."

There was a timid sort of knock on the door to the train compartment and we exchanged a glance, wondering if the redhead and Snivellus (as Sirius had coined the greasy one) had returned.

"Come in," I called politely, just in case it wasn't them.

It wasn't.

"Sorry," said a boy with scars on his face and arms. "But a second year set off a dungbomb in our compartment and everywhere else seems to be full."

"We've got seats, come on in," said James jovially, motioning to the window seats. The scarred one sat by me, and the mousey one by Sirius.

"I'm Remus," the scarred one said shyly, "and this is Peter."

"Claire."

"Sirius."

"James."

"Olivia."

"It's very nice to meet you," James said happily. "Do you like Quidditch?"

And so a friendship was born between the six of us, all happy and almost relieved to have met people we could be happy spending time with so early on.

Claire and I went to the washrooms to change while the boys changed in the compartment, and we instantly bonded when the boys weren't around.

"You've got very pretty eyes," she told me happily. "I wish my eyes were green. Gray is such a boring color, don't you think?"

"I like it," I replied with a shrug. "I don't think green's all that special."

Through discussion while changing we also learned that neither of us ever combed our hair. Hers fell into perfectly graceful waves, and mine into smooth, straight locks without any outside encouragement.

"I wonder why that is," she said thoughtfully as we walked back to our compartment, finishing off the last of the sweets that were bought between the six of us when we sat down.

"Why what is what?" Sirius asked, putting his arm around his sister's shoulder.

"Nothing that would interest you, brother dear."

"Whatever you say, Baby," he said with a smile as she kissed his cheek.

Anne-Claire and I had always gotten on fine, but I found myself instantly jealous of the closeness between Claire and her twin. Perhaps it was something about going through everything together had made them bond so completely.

When we got off at the platform, a booming voice called, "Firs' years, follow me! All firs' years t'me!"

We all moved together toward the giant figure that was raising a lantern and calling all the first years to him like a lighthouse calling boats to the harbor.

"Righ', this way!"

We were led down to the lakeside where there were dozens of rowboats awaiting us.

"No more 'n four to a boat!" the large man called out, and I was followed into a boat quickly by Sirius, Claire, and James. Remus and Peter got into the boat next to us, followed by two rather pretty girls.

"Hi, Sarah!" Claire called to the blonde of the two girls. "Who's your friend?"

"Abigail Edgeworth, Muggle-born," the girl called Sarah said. "Who's yours, Claire?"

"Her name's Olivia Cromwell."

"No way!"

The man tapped an umbrella against his own boat, which propelled all of the boats forward at a steady pace. I turned to Claire and Sirius.

"Who's Sarah?"

"Sarah Walcott," Sirius said with a snort. "Pureblood. Airhead."

"She's nice enough," Claire said with a bored sort of shrug. "And fun-"

"Fun to tease you mean," James said with a grin. "Your greatest joy is to make fun of her."

I raised my eyebrows.

"Oh, James, no longer," Claire said with a sinister sort of giggle. "She's far too easy of a target. I think Red over there might be a bit of fun, though."

She was, of course, referring to the redheaded girl whom Sirius had termed harpy earlier in the day. The girl in question was in a boat a couple of boats over with Snivellus, a nervous looking boy, and a girl who looked exactly like me.

I'd met that girl once before. She had different eyes, of course, but my father insisted that I shouldn't concern myself with the fact that the girl was like looking in a mirror.

"Was that a giant squid?" James asked, awe and reverence in his face as he pointed out across the lake.

None of the rest of us had seen it, but the question was answered when one of the boats tipped several minutes later. The giant squid used its tentacles to turn the boat back and push the four squealing girls back into the boat.

"Wow," I sighed, a little bit jealous.

That squid was cool.

When we reached the castle we were led into the Great Hall, where the Sorting Hat James had told us about sang a quick song about the houses and the students milled nervously. I would be early, but even so I couldn't wait for it to be over.

"Aubrey, Bertram!"

The boy who was standing next to the red-haired girl in line rushed forward, face flushed with nerves and excitement. James must have been a bit nervous or excited as well, because he grabbed my hand and squeezed it.

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

The boy rushed off to join the cheering Hufflepuff table and Professor McGonagall called, "Avery, Jack!"

A boy toward the front of the line slid forward, the hat barely touching his head before screaming, "SLYTHERIN!"

"Black, Claire!"

Claire walked confidently forward from my side, a lot of attention on her as she made her way to the front with her nose in the air. She very clearly knew she was special.

Sirius bounced up and down on the balls of his feet anxiously as his sister sat gracefully on the stool, the hat being place on her head.

Some students seemed to take longer, and it was Claire's Sorting that alerted me to this, because it took nearly thirty seconds for the hat to finally call out, "GRYFFINDOR!"

Sirius paled and there was a bit of a stir at the Slytherin table as Claire took a nervous seat at the Gryffindor table, and if they hadn't said on the train that everyone in their family was from Slytherin I wouldn't have understood the atmosphere at all.

"Black, Sirius!"

Sirius hurried forward, shooting Claire a nervous smile on the way, and I noticed several girls in the group of first years giggling and turning to each other excitedly as he passed them. He was going to be one of _those_ boys.

Almost as soon as Sirius sat down, the hat cried, "GRYFFINDOR!" and the atmosphere in the room was considerably tenser.

Not only had a Black been Sorted into Gryffindor, but two at once.

"Bletchley, Megan!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

"He's going to get a Howler," James whispered. "Probably Claire, too."

"Bones, Edgar!"

I shivered, thinking of how uncomfortable it would be to disappoint a parent with Sorting, much less your entire family.

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Bradley, Benjamin!"

"I hope it's not too bad," I whispered, squeezing James's hand back. He gave me a sad smile.

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Brocklehurst, Shannon!"

"Cromwell, right?" said a name in my ear. I turned to see Sarah Walcott standing there. "I'm Sarah Walcott. Did Claire mention me on the train?"

"Erm..."

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Cromwell, Olivia!"

"Got to go, sorry!" I said with a smile, not noticing how quiet the Great Hall had gotten at my name as I moved to the front of the hall, all of the teachers and many of the students staring at me intently as I got up to the front. I fidgeted as I sat on the stool, the hat being lowered onto my head.

"Interesting," I heard in my skull in the voice of the hat. "A Slytherin perhaps, but there is a lot of Ravenclaw and Gryffindor in you. Your mother did very well in Ravenclaw, but you are not your mother in spite of what you have been told. Hmm... Greatness is destined for you. I think-

"GRYFFINDOR!"

I stood on shaky legs, walking the path to sit beside Sirius and Claire, who welcomed me with smiles, shaking hands, and a kiss on the cheek from Claire to cement our friendship before all of the Great Hall.

I was with friends.

"Crook, Georgina!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Nervous?" Sirius whispered in my ear.

"A little," I admitted sheepishly. "Are you?"

"Cuffe, Barnabas!"

"A little," he said grimly, looking down at his hands, waiting to clap for whichever house got Cuffe.

"RAVENCLAW!"

I nodded, looking at Professor McGonagall and her severe demeanor before looking over at James, who was having his ear chatted off by Sarah Walcott.

"Curd, Gemma!"

"Walcott, she's a bit pleased with herself, isn't she?" I asked, speaking as softly as possible to Claire and Sirius, who both smirked identically at this question.

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Oh, she's the greatest thing since corked bottles, that one," Sirius laughed. "In her own mind, anyway."

"Edgeworth, Abigail!"

Several of the Muggle-born (obvious from the way they wore robes) students got excited at this name, including the red-haired girl, and some of the girls began squealing.

"What's so special about her?" I asked.

"Sarah told me she's some sort of Muggle nobility," Claire said with a shrug. "Apparently she's famous, but so are you, so I don't see how it matters."

It was strange to be told I was famous as though someone was telling me that my hands were covered in skin.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

The table around us erupted and I found myself clapping as I scrutinized the girl approaching our table, sitting across from us. Her hair was long, luxurious, and dark. Her eyes were pretty, her face well formed, and her manner very much that of Claire, knowing she was something special. When she sat across from Claire the two girls blinked at each other in that same unimpressed way.

Something told me Gryffindor was going to be very high-maintenance living.

"Egg, Madison!"

"Oh, what a terrible surname," Sirius sniggered as the girl moved to the front, blushing and plump.

Couldn't argue with that assessment.

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Elkins, Elise!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Entwhistle, Katie!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Evans, Lily!"

The redhead from the train went forward as though she had springs on her feet, a broad smile across her face.

"Oh, it's Red," Claire said with a vicious sort of smile. "Lovely. I'm thinking Hufflepuff."

"Ravenclaw," Sirius said, and they shook quickly, probably some abbreviated form of betting they'd developed.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Both of them groaned and Lily came over to the table, sitting down beside Abigail and saying as calmly as possible how thrilled she was to meet her, barely sparing a glance for our side of the table. I raised an eyebrow, glancing back at the unsorted first years and seeing that Snivellus looked less than pleased about Evans's arrangement.

Well, so was I.

"Fawcett, Sam!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"I thought I was going to be in Ravenclaw, the way the hat was talking," Lily was telling Abigail nervously.

"Fenwick, Benjy!"

"Oh, he looks like a poof," Sirius sniggered, and my eyes widened, shocked.

"RAVENCLAW!"

"There's a shock," Sirius said honestly, frowning.

"Fleetwood, Morgan!"

"Slytherin," Sirius and Claire said together, grinning slightly.

"You know her?" I asked, curious.

"Not at all," Claire said, shaking her head. "I'm sure she's half-blood. But she's got the look for it, doesn't she?"

Sure enough, moments later...

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Flint, Mollie!"

"Oh, we do know her," Sirius winced. "Her brother's got very large fists."

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Lupin, Remus!"

I crossed my fingers under the table, not wanting our group of six to be split up, especially now that Lily Evans was in my House.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

We clapped loudly for Remus as he joined our table, sitting across from me, beside Lily, who greeted him as warmly as I did, which he seemed pleasantly surprised about.

"MacDougal, Isabella!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Macmillan, Michael!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Macnair, Walden!"

"Slytherin," Claire muttered, picking at a loose string on the cuff on her shirt.

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Morecomb, Eva!"

My virtual twin moved forward, and Sirius's jaw dropped.

"Who is that?" he asked, stunned. "Do you know her? She looks just like you!"

"I know," I said softly, noticing that Professor Dumbledore was watching her closely. "I've met her before, but I really don't know who she is. Maybe she does, but my father wouldn't tell me anything."

"Weird," Sirius whispered, his face scrunched a bit as he tried to think of what relation she might be to me.

"SLYTHERIN!"

I glanced over at the Slytherin table and watched Eva Morecomb sit with some very angry looking boys, all who then looked directly over at me. I shivered.

"Ignore them," Sirius whispered in my ear. "We've got the Cromwell. They're just jealous."

What they were jealous about, I really didn't know.

"Mulciber, Brandon!"

"Slytherin," the twins chorused.

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Pettigrew, Peter!"

Remus and I exchanged nervous looks across the table and waited anxiously as Peter scurried forward, sitting on the stool so quickly that he nearly fell off, much to the amusement of many a student. I wince, but when the hat finished its deliberation it cried, "GRYFFINDOR!"

We clapped happily as Professor McGonagall called out, "Philpott, Alex!" and Peter sat down next to Remus, clearly sweating from the pressure of it all.

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Potter, James!"

I heard Lily groaned but Sirius grabbed my hand under the table, obviously as anxious as I was to finish off our six-person clique.

Not that any of us should have been worried, sure of himself as James looked when he sauntered to the front.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

He glided over to sit beside me, grinning ear to ear.

"Pritchard, Gabriel!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

"We're all here," James said happily in my ear.

"Snape, Severus!"

Lily watched eagerly as Snivellus made his way to the front of the room, ignoring the giggles of several older students as they gossiped about his hair.

"SLYTHERIN!"

He seemed very pleased with himself, and when the Slytherin Prefect welcomed him into the fold I could have sworn I saw a tear forming in the corner of Lily's eye, but she blinked it away quickly if it had been there at all.

"Snell, Bethany!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Spinnet, Alice!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Walcott, Sarah!"

"Hufflepuff," Sirius said to Claire.

"No arguments there," she laughed.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

The twins just stared in shock as Sarah Walcott, blonde doll that she was, came over to the Gryffindor table and sat beside James because she seemed not to be sure what to make of Peter.

"Watkins, Finlay!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Wenlock, Bailey!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

Dinner was a delicious affair, and perhaps a miracle because we were all too busy eating to talk and get into some sort of fight like the one on the train. When we went to the Gryffindor common room, however, and I found that Claire and I were sleeping in a room with Lily, Abigail, and Sarah, I very nearly cried.

Seven years suddenly seemed like a lifetime.


	2. First Year Ends

**A/N: Abigail's POV**

If someone would have told me that by the end of the first year we would have managed to be friends in our dormitory I would have said they were crazy.

But as it turned out, we managed to pull it off, more or less.

Lily and Olivia had settled their grievances fairly early into the year, although Claire hadn't been able to bridge that same gap.

Thus, Lily was friends with everyone but Claire. Olivia was friends with everyone. I was friends with everyone but Claire (and things were still tense at best with Olivia) and Sarah was friends with everyone.

It was nearly the last day of school and exam tension was over, with only a week left to socialize and prepare to go home.

"Livia," Claire drawled, "have you seen my shirt?"

"Which one?" Olivia asked from the bathroom, drying off her flawless hair as she strolled in wearing nothing but a towel.

That girl was shameless.

"The one Sirius was wearing last week."

I rolled my eyes.

Claire and Sirius shared all their band t-shirts, and when they weren't in uniform they rarely wore anything but band tees and jeans. It was hardly a satisfactory wardrobe in my opinion.

"Um, under my bed, maybe?"

Claire looked under the bed and came up again with a black t-shirt.

"Got it, thanks," she cried, pulling it on and grabbing her bag. "Be back later. We're going to the lake."

"I'll be down as soon as I'm dressed," Olivia called as Claire rushed out, waving to acknowledge that she'd heard before running out of sight.

Lily was sitting at our mirror, trying to decide how to put up her hair and Sarah was doing her nails. I sat on the floor beside my trunk attempting to choose between my blue skirt and my black skirt.

"Blue," Lily finally sighed. "Just put on the blue one so we can get out of this bloody room sometime today, Abby."

Lily was the only person in the world but my father who was allowed to call me Abby. She was my best friend, after all, the only person with whom I shared my secrets, few that I had. Despite the fact that she was Muggle-born and knew me as Lady Abigail Edgeworth, she treated me more like a normal human being than even those raised entirely in the magical world, who seemed to think I was especially scummy for having been born into Muggle nobility.

I put on the blue skirt, watching as Olivia pulled on one of her many dresses, this one a green that matched her eyes exactly, fluffing her perfect hair in hopes that it would not lie so flat, but it just fell back where it had been before, as it always did.

I was a bit ridiculous with my hair, I had to even admit, but I was very proud of my long, beautiful hair. But seeing Claire and Olivia never even comb or style their hair and how it fell perfectly without a moment's effort... Well, it was a bit annoying to say the least.

"Almost done," Sarah muttered, concentrating carefully as she swiped the last bit of pink polish over her pinky nail. Then she let out a frustrated squeal and said, "No! I messed it up, I have to start all over!"

Lily winced and groaned but Olivia said, "Oh, Merlin, that's it!"

She pulled out her wand, pointed it at Sarah's pinky determinedly, and suddenly the small nail was perfectly manicured, no mistakes to find.

I blinked.

How could she have mastered so quickly the unspoken spells most people didn't learn until they were N.E.W.T. students?

That was another way in which I was frustrated by Olivia, Claire, even Lily at times. Sirius Black liked to tease me, even had a tendency to call me a weak witch, a coward.

And compared with Olivia especially, he might even be a bit right.

I was certainly neither of those things, of course, and compared with Sarah I was basically the opposite, but Claire and Olivia were fearless, and they always topped everything Lily didn't manage to out-do them with her studying in. I was intelligent and bold, but nothing compared with those other girls, and everyone knew how highly he valued Olivia and Claire.

Compared with them, I was nothing special, and the fact that they were richer than even I was, no matter how you converted the money. Olivia had more power and influence at her disposal at the age of eleven than any other witch or wizard in the world.

The same could be said of me in the Muggle world, but it wasn't like I was the heir to England.

Olivia basically was.

"All right, then," Sarah said happily. "Just a quick spritz of perfume and I'm ready to go!"

Lily decided to put her hair up, which she did quickly, and as soon as Sarah had finished with her spritz the four of us walked down the staircase to the common room, which was eerily empty. With the warm weather everyone who had friends was outside. I rushed out of the portrait hole after Lily, and we made our way down to the entrance hall, onto the grounds, and away across the grounds to the lake, where everyone was crowded in their little clusters of friend groups.

"Oh, look, there's Claire and the boys!" Olivia cried happily, waving over at the lake to where the Marauders were splashing Claire, who laughed.

I rolled my eyes and Lily winced, but Sarah smiled.

"We don't have to sit right by the water," Sarah said happily. "And Remus is down there, you two like Remus! And it's the end of the year, after all. We won't have to see them all summer!"

Not really able to come up with a proper reason to avoid the boys between us, Lily and I agreed to go down to the lakefront to spend one of our last days of term with the Marauders and Claire.

"Well, look who it is!" Sirius Black laughed as we approached. "Worried you'll get your skirt wet, Edgeworth?"

"Worried your brains will fall into the lake, Black?"

I wanted to smack myself.

Not my best insult, but he just laughed, splashing his sister more vigorously.

As it was, I wasn't very upset with the idea of getting wet. It was a beautiful day and the lake looked pleasingly cool. In fact, many upperclassmen were already in bathing suits and swimming through the clear, blue water.

"I'll just sit up here!" Sarah said, spreading out next to Peter, who looked like Christmas had come early.

Lily, brave girl she was, went down to the water with Olivia, who was already running into the lake with the boys, having James lift her up on his shoulders and challenging the black twins to chicken. While the twins considered, I was considering how I was going to go about my own important decision.

Sit up with Sarah and Peter and have Sirius tell me that I was coward, or sit down by the lake and put my feet in the water and risk having my hair ruined?

Oh, Sirius was right, I realized. I was a coward if I was more worried about my hair than about my ability to have fun. Sarah and Peter were not having any fun at all, sitting up away from the water where they were, not talking to each other.

Truth be told, I didn't much care for Sarah, but she was friends with Lily and seemed to like me fine, and I needed to have more than one friend in my dormitory or I would explode.

I moved carefully toward the water as Claire was climbing onto her brother's back and I sat down beside Lily, who was taking off her shoes and putting her feet into the water.

"I see you've decided to join me," Lily said happily. Remus was wading toward them, wanting to get out of the line of fire of the foursome playing chicken. "Hey, Remus!" she said happily, waving at him as he approached.

"Hi, girls," he said softly, blushing a little. Or maybe he was sunburnt.

No, definitely blushing.

"Aren't you hot in that shirt, Remus?" I asked, not teasing, just pointing out that all the other boys around the lake appeared to be shirtless.

Well, excepting Severus Snape.

"No, I'm fine," he lied.

It was fairly easy to tell when Remus was lying, although the boys had been trying to teach him to be better at it.

"Well, you look like you're burning up," I told him, and it was the truth. Surely some of the liquid on his face was sweat, the way it was beading up.

"Well, you ladies look excellent," he said, trying to deflect attention away from himself. "I see your skirt was deemed less important than your honor."

"Not amused," I said lazily, sticking my feet in the water and leaning back on my elbows.

We laid back on the grass and watched as Claire and Olivia tried to knock each other over.

"This is hardly fair," Claire complained. "I was already slippery."

"And I'm not in as good of shape as James," Sirius groaned. "Baby, you weigh a ton."

Claire spared a slap for the top of her brother's head before continuing her onslaught of Olivia.

That was another thing those two did. Sirius always called his twin 'baby', almost like they were dating, except there was not even a flirtatious hint to it. I had never learned how the nickname began, or why she didn't have a similar one for him, but I'd grown used to hearing the strange endearment. He was certainly very possessive of those he cared about, and Claire most of all.

When they'd been Sorted into Gryffindor, the Black twins received Howlers. Sirius's was bad, but Claire's was worse. Sirius had been so enraged that he'd even said something particularly cruel to me when I tried to comfort them.

And it was the only time I'd ever seen Claire cry, but an hour later her face had been a perfect mask of serenity, as if it had never happened.

Sometimes pureblood students freaked me out a little bit, and Claire and Sirius were top of that list.

"Livia, watch out!" Remus cried, but it was too late. Olivia went falling off James's shoulders, but not by Claire's efforts, or any slip on James's part. She looked as though she'd been hit by a column of air and was blow back by the force into the water.

Claire scrambled off her brother's back and Sirius dove in after Olivia, the rest of us getting to our feet for a better look.

James helped Sirius pull Olivia out of the water and onto the grass and I checked to see that she was still breathing.

"Just knocked out," I said softly, checking her damp hair for blood, but there were no cuts. "Might have a concussion, but that'd be the worst of it, I should think."

"Her skull's not cracked?" Sirius asked nervously. "I mean, could you even tell?"

"If it were, I could fix it," I said confidently, "but I don't think I want to try feeling around on her head to find out in case it is."

"We'll have to take her to the hospital wing, anyway," Lily reasoned. "Do you boys think you can carry her between you?"

"Of course we can," Sirius snapped.

And we knew they could. Earlier in the year Olivia had gotten into a duel with Severus Snape, the only difference being that we knew who'd knocked her out, and she was screaming continually while unconscious.

Sirius carried her around when she was discharged from the hospital wing to keep her from having to brave the Hogwarts stairs on shaky legs. He'd gotten very good at it, and with James's help there was no difficulty whatsoever.

They carried her off and I watched nervously. Sure, I didn't get along with Olivia, but that girl had been severely injured so much in the course of a single school year that anyone would be concerned.

"When I find out who did that," Remus growled, his voice filled with fury, "I'll kill them."

I blinked.

Remus had a crush on Olivia, everyone knew that. But either he knew something I didn't or he was especially protective of the girl. I turned to tell him that it was just a concussion, nothing to kill over, when sound of laughter grew close, and laughter of the sinister variety.

"What a tumble," said Yaxley, an older Slytherin student, who was followed by a few other Slytherins, including Eva Morecomb, Olivia's look-alike cousin. "Too bad she fell from so high. A lot of damage can be done from that height."

"Do you know anything about what happened, Yaxley?" Lily demanded boldly. How she could just demand things from older, threatening students was beyond me. I could see standing your ground, but what she was doing was a good way to become a target.

"I saw a gust of wind," Yaxley drawled. "And Cromwell lost her balance. Exactly what you saw."

"There was no gust of wind," Remus snapped. "You did something to her! It was a curse, I know it!"

Yaxley just smirked at Remus like he was an amusing little puppy dog and said calmly, "Prove it."

Remus's nostril's flared, but he said nothing, just standing there, furious, glaring at Yaxley as if he had the hope to set the boy on flame just with the intensity of his stare.

"Exactly," Yaxley finally said, his smirk growing even crueler. "You can't. Have a good summer."

He and his cronies walked away without another word and for a moment Remus looked like he was going to lunge for Yaxley, but I put my hand on his forearm and he calmed.

"He's not worth it, Remus," I said softly. "Olivia's going to be fine. And he's right, we can't prove he did anything."

"There might have been a way," Lily said slowly, "but it's too late now, he's just done another spell on that patch of grass."

"But he's not allowed to do magic outside class," Remus said hopefully.

"Not in the corridors," Lily corrected. "I'm not sure he can get in trouble out here if he's not dueling, and changing the color of grass isn't dueling."

Remus sighed, "I guess she'll get a good rest over the summer, anyway. We can keep an eye on her."

I blinked.

"I didn't know you and Olivia lived near to each other."

Remus blushed slightly.

"We don't," he said, frowning out at the water. "Her father's having the Marauders and Claire stay at the Cromwell Manor this summer. Lily was invited too, but-"

"I turned it down," Lily said with a shrug. "Too many people for my taste. It's sure to be utter chaos."

Lily didn't turn it down for the chaos, though, I knew. She turned it down because Sarah and I weren't invited.

"You and Sarah can spend some time at my home, Lily," I said. "You know, once I work out details with Gran. There's not really any chaos allowed."

"That's nice," Lily said softly. "We can work it out by owl."

I nodded, hoping that we would actually get to work it out.

My grandmother was a stubborn, Muggle woman who seemed to disapprove of everything that had to do with my being at Hogwarts, but she followed my father's wishes while he travelled.

"We should probably go up to the hospital wing," Remus said, pulling out his wand and drying himself off as we put on our shoes.

"Can we go later?" I asked. "Madam Pomfrey will only be mad that we're getting in her way if we all go up now."

"We're going," Claire said angrily, drying herself off. "If you're too much of a coward to go with us-"

"What is it with you two?" I muttered under my breath as Claire led the way up to the castle.

Unsurprisingly, Peter and Sarah stayed where they were.

Maybe Claire was right, maybe staying would have been cowardly.

When I saw Olivia being injured, every time it happened, it was a reminder of my mother's death, which I had witnessed from a cupboard when I was a child. Olivia didn't remind me much of my mother, but before seeing her fall in that duel, I hadn't seen anything else that reminded me so much of death.

Thankfully, by the time we reached the hospital wing, she was conscious again and I didn't feel like I was looking death in the face. Madam Pomfrey was giving her a potion for her concussion and the boys were crowding around her, Claire, Lily, and I standing on the fringes.

"M'fine," Olivia muttered bracing herself against Sirius's arm as she sat up. "What happened?"

"You fell," I said dumbly. She blinked at me.

"The cowardly Slytherins thought it would be funny to attack you when you couldn't defend yourself," Claire growled. "And then make sure they couldn't be caught for it."

Sirius's face turned red with anger and I thought he was going to echo Remus's earlier sentiments about killing someone, but Olivia just patted his arm and said, "Well, I'm fine, and the year's nearly over. It could have been worse."

Sirius reluctantly calmed down and I stood there watching them, wondering if we were only twelve years old, how much worse things could get before we graduated from Hogwarts. Suddenly I recalled asking my father to send me to school with my only Muggle friend and wondering if maybe I hadn't had the right idea back then. Sure, I'd made a lot of very good friends, but looking at how tired and casually Olivia could take the fact that someone had just attacked her in a way that could have easily killed her, I wondered if it might not be safer being somewhere else.


End file.
